Ness’ series – which, like all good YA series these days, comprises three titles, The Knife Of Never Letting Go, The Ask And The Answer and Monsters Of Men – finds Earth ruined in a dystopian future.

Humanity, though, has colonized a distant, Earth-like planet and is trying to make a go of it there when an infection called the Noise strikes, which makes all thoughts audible. Chaos, somewhat naturally follows, and soon a corrupt autocrat takes the chance to seize control of the settlements in order to launch a strike on the native alien race. A young lad named Todd Hewitt (perhaps some distant descendant of Empire’s own Chris!) must stop the oncoming destruction.

Though Adaptation / Synecdoche, New York's Kaufman might not be the first name studios would leap to when looking to make a blockbuster, he’s certainly an intriguing choice with the potential to produce something very different. And he’s not completely outside of the system, having contributed uncredited script work to several movies including Kung Fu Panda 2.

Kaufman will be getting to work on Chaos while at the same time setting things in motion for his latest directing job, Frank Or Francis, which sees Steve Carell’s film director sparring with Jack Black’s blogger.